Page:Lars Henning Söderhjelm - The Red Insurrection in Finland in 1918 - tr. Annie Ingebord Fausbøll (1920).djvu/24



The world-war brought Finland into a peculiar position. Without an army, with conscription not legally done away with but put out of practice by the Russians themselves, she stood as a portion of the Russian Empire which did not take part in the war. So severe was the discontent which the Russian policy of repression had aroused in Finland that Russia did not even deem it advisable to attempt to enlist military here. On the other hand, only one wish was prevalent in all classes and factions: the defeat of Russia. For the experience of the Russo-Japanese war, as well as ordinary common-sense, told them that the present regime must come to an end with a defeat, and the way thus be opened to liberty for Finland, whereas a victory would get fresh wind into the sails of the reaction and destroy all our hopes. Even the leaders of the Labour Party were of this opinion, all the more so as it was held by the Russian revolutionary extremists.

Already at the beginning of the war an imperial manifesto had, however, been issued which boded a complete assimilation of Finland. And the further the war proceeded the more severely the Russian pressure was felt. Huge masses of Russian troops were garrisoned here, the Russian Baltic fleet filled the ports, the country was declared to be in a state of war. Through this a practical Russification of the country was begun Street life took on a Russian aspect, the best customers in the shops were Russians, the erotic successes of the Russian uniform exposed the community to dangers of a particular kind. The Russian gendarmery—the political police showed energetic activity, arrests and the searching of houses was the order of the day, nay,